Susan Poag / The Times-PicayuneJonathan Bolar testified for more than five hours Wednesday evening and Thursday, proclaiming his innocence but admitting guilt to the misdemeanor charges of failing to file income tax returns from 2003 to 2006.

Delivering a stinging and surprising blow to Jonathan Bolar's defense, a longtime friend of the former Gretna city councilman testified Thursday she lied to a federal grand jury two years ago at his urging, telling the panel that indicted him that he did not try to extort $2,500 from a contractor building her sister's home.

Susan Poag,The Times-Picayune archiveJonathan Bolar's attorney Marion Floyd was clearly stunned by the sudden shift in testimony from his witness.

"He asked me (to lie) before I went to the grand jury," Adonis Favorite testified in response to questions by Bolar's attorney Marion Floyd, who was clearly stunned by the sudden shift in testimony from his witness. "Yes, I'm admitting that I lied for my friend." She testified Thursday that Bolar did extort money from her sister and cousin.

After she finished her testimony before the grand jury on April 3, 2008, Favorite said Bolar wanted to speak with her about what transpired, but he refused to talk on the phone. They met at a park, she said.

"He patted me down," she testified. "I had just left the grand jury, and he wanted to make sure I wasn't wired (with a recording device). He asked me, 'How did it go?' I told him it went well."

Bolar is charged with four counts of extortion, two counts of wire fraud, four counts of failing to file income tax returns and three counts of structuring his bank transactions to avoid having his deposits reported to the Internal Revenue Service. He is accused of extorting from constituents in exchange for his vote, and of trying to sell a property to a church and then an elderly couple a year after he sold the land to someone else.

"He let arrogance and greed get hold of his office and how he handled it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Pickens, who prosecuted the case with Matthew Coman and Sharan Lieberman, told the jury in closing arguments Thursday.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations this morning. If convicted of all 13 counts, Bolar could face up to 139 years in prison.

Bolar testified for more than five hours Wednesday evening and Thursday, proclaiming his innocence but admitting guilt to the misdemeanor charges of failing to file income tax returns from 2003 to 2006. He also said his alleged extortion victims who testified this week "emphatically came in here and lied."

And in his last statement to the jury, he hinted that Gretna politics played a role in the criminal investigation that led to his indictment, echoing public statements he made last month during his failed bid for re-election as Gretna's 1st District councilman, when he called the charges "a political attack" by Gretna's elected officials.

"All of this started in Gretna, and I know where it started in Gretna," he testified Thursday without elaborating.

His testimony opened him to a wide-ranging attack on his credibility by Coman, who introduced evidence showing the Jefferson Parish water department fired Bolar in 1993 for payroll fraud, because he charged 50 percent interest on loans he made to employees he supervised. The Gretna Police Department fired him as a reserve officer, and in August 2006, he spent $16,800 on jewelry when at the same time, he owed $23,000 in child support payments, Coman said.

Forges, who is Favorite's sister, was building a home on Romain Street, and had hired their cousin Harris to build it. But construction stalled, because Harris was erecting the slab foundation too close to the rear property line in violation of Gretna ordinances. Harris claims Bolar stalled the project as part of his extortion scheme.

Favorite, a lifelong friend of Bolar's wife, Karen, told the grand jury two years ago that Harris was eager to complete the slab and asked Bolar "whose palm he could grease" to allow construction to proceed, meaning he was offering to bribe Bolar.

Bolar offered similar testimony Thursday. He said that Harris asked him "whose palms do I have to grease," and about whether they were in Jefferson Parish Councilman Byron Lee's district, "because that's how it works in Marrero."

Bolar testified he told Harris that in Gretna, "we don't do things that way."

Favorite apparently was expected to repeat that story to the jury Thursday. Yet, she offered testimony similar to what Harris told the jury Tuesday -- that Bolar is an extortionist. She testified that Bolar told Harris, "It would cost twenty-five hundred to fix this problem."

U.S. District Judge Lance Africk immediately stopped the testimony. After a private discussion with the attorneys, he allowed the testimony to continue. Favorite then testified that Bolar asked Harris for $2,500 "because there were five guys on the board (Gretna City Council) that needed to be paid in order for this variance to be passed."

Stunned, Floyd then attacked his own witness. He confronted her with her grand jury testimony in which she accused Harris of offering Bolar a bribe.

"I lied then," she testified. "When I came before the grand jury, I lied."

Africk again shut down the testimony, ordered the jury out of the courtroom and appointed a federal public defender to advise Favorite on the legal consequences of her testimony. Lying to a grand jury is a federal crime, Africk told her.

After speaking with the public defenders, Favorite continued her testimony. She said she lied to FBI Agent Todd Goodson, who investigated Bolar. She said Bolar also got her to lie to his former attorney, Clarence Roby, in an affidavit in which she again said Harris wanted to know whose palms he could grease.

Africk, who throughout the trial frequently questioned witnesses, asked Favorite, "Who asked you to use those words?"

"My friend Jonathan," Favorite replied.

Favorite said she decided "to tell the truth several months ago," and met with federal prosecutors and the FBI two weeks ago. She testified no one forced her to change her story or offered her any deals.

Floyd urged the jury to reject Favorite's testimony, saying she has a track record of lying. Coman told the jury to believe her.

"She told the truth today, despite the fact he got her to lie under oath to the grand jury and to the FBI," Coman said. "He thought he still had her in his pocket today."